Before Breast Reduction Surgery, Amber Rose Says It Felt Like 'I Had a Heavy Backpack on My Chest'

Amber Rose took nearly three years to decide that she would undergo breast reduction surgery—even though her breasts were causing her regular pain. In a new interview with People, Rose said that she spent so long debating the surgery because she was worried about how it might affect her sense of self.

"I was scared that I wouldn't feel sexy anymore, but it got to the point where I literally was in pain. It was almost as if I had, like, a heavy backpack on my chest," Rose said. "I got my boobs when I was 14, but I would say, over the years, as my weight fluctuated, my boobs fluctuated. And, so, after I had my son, I mean, my boobs, they got bigger. They got way, way bigger. They definitely made me look older when I was a teenager, and also, I felt it made me look heavier as well because they were so big." She went on, "They weren't implants or anything like that, and so my back was hurting me. There was times I would just walk and just stop and be like—it would kill me."

Rose said that her breast size impacted pretty much every type of physical activity she tried to do, including her stint on Dancing With the Stars in 2016.

"My boobs slowed me down. And, my partner, [Maksim Chmerkovskiy], would be like, 'Come on! Hurry up, faster, faster, faster.' And I'm like, 'Dude, I can't go any faster! I'm, like, in pain. I literally cannot move that fast,'" she said. Finally, after struggling with this pain for years, and despite her worries about post-surgery scarring, Rose said she realized, "This is more of, like, a health issue, where I have to get this done."

As SELF reported previously, having large, heavy breasts can definitely cause pain that radiates to the back, neck, and shoulders on a daily basis. And, although the recovery process will includes some discomfort, patients often begin to feel relief from their breast-related pain right after the procedure, Peter Taub, M.D., a professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told SELF.

In January of this year, Rose turned to Beverly Hills–based plastic surgeon Dr. Garth Fisher to take her from a 36H to a 36DDD in a surgery that took more than three hours. And she's already loving the results: She told People that "it's like a dream come true" to be able to wear spaghetti-strap tops without feeling self-conscious.